Joplin Invites Techies to Help Create New Website

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — Joplin is looking for some high-tech gurus willing to work around the clock this weekend to help design a new, tornado-ready city website.

What's been labeled the Joplin "hackathon" begins Friday afternoon at City Hall and continues through Sunday afternoon. The competition is sponsored by the city of Joplin and CivicPlus, a website development company based in Manhattan, Kan.

Organizers hope to lure five-person teams of website developers and designers to help create a more interactive official city site. The goal is to better provide residents with emergency management information.

The new Joplin website will be unveiled shortly before May 22, the one-year anniversary of one of the deadliest single tornadoes in U.S. history.